Ubuntu 8.10alpha6 failed to start on Dell Vostro 200

[tikky]

I have tried to start Live CD with Ubuntu 8.10 alpha 6 on my Dell Vostro 200 Tower however I am getting an error message (see attachments).
First of all we thought that this was a problem with broken cd. However I've trieed few diffrent cd, diffrent burners etc.
As an advised by Saïvann Carignan have tried to change SATA mode in BIOS from IDE to RAIS but problem still persist.
Also have tried to run computer from Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn Live cd and I am having similar error.
On my Windows XP I run VirtualBox and tried to run Ubuntu from the same cd and is working fine.

More details also here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/153702

If this can help, here is specificartion of my machine:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33
SATA standard HDD 320GB (samsung)
4 GB RAM (4*1GB Patriot)
Standard Intel Graphics Card
Belkin 54g Usb WLAN card
Card reader
SB Audigy 2

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Thanks for your bug report! In addition to what you already tried, I would be interesting to know if ubuntu LiveCD can start if you use a different device than your current CD drive to start the Live environment. I know two ways to do this, in case you want to try the adventure :

1. External USB CD drive, in case you have one. Vostro 200 should be able to boot from such devices.
2. LiveUSB, there is many ways to create LiveUSB pen drive described in ubuntu wiki, and even a tool exist to do it from a computer that is running the LiveCD : http://klik.atekon.de/liveusb/

In case you want to try it, there is also some chances to recover useful debugging informations if you want to try these instructions :

1. Plug a USB key that has only one partition in fat32 filesystem to your computer and try to boot it with the LiveCD.
2. When you get to the busybox prompt, type all following commands :
mkdir /mnt/USB
mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /mnt/USB
lspci -nnvv > /mnt/USB/lspci-nnvv.log
dmesg > /mnt/USB/dmesg.log
uname -a > /mnt/USB/uname-a.log
cat /proc/version_signature > /mnt/USB/version.log
umount /dev/sdb1

3. Disconnect your USB key, it should now contains 4 .log files that you can attach to this message and that will give a lot of informations about your hardware and about the problem.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

In my last comment : note that /dev/sb1 might be /dev/sda1 or /dev/sdc1 on your computer, if one fail, try the other. Also if umount /dev/sdb1 does not work, use umount /mnt/USB

[tikky (piotr-fuz)]

I've managed to make LiveUSB (I did not realize that it will take 3 hours to make liveusb version).
So, now I can run my Dell from USB drive without any problems, it is fast - just 35 second to load system from USB. I am really surprised. Do you suspect why computer is not starting from cd?

By the way - I am having just one problem with liveusb. After I started Firefox I can't see the toolbar - Ubuntu toolbar is above the firefox, and I can't minimize or maximise Firefox. Please see attachment - but I realize that this is other problem.

Do you want me to do any other test after I succesfully boot to Ubuntu from usb?

[tikky (piotr-fuz)]

I've managed to make LiveUSB (I did not realize that it will take 3 hours to make liveusb version).
So, now I can run my Dell from USB drive without any problems, it is fast - just 35 second to load system from USB. I am really surprised. Do you suspect why computer is not starting from cd?

By the way - I am having just one problem with liveusb. After I started Firefox I can't see the toolbar - Ubuntu toolbar is above the firefox, and I can't minimize or maximise Firefox. Please see attachment - but I realize that this is other problem.

Do you want me to do any other test after I succesfully boot to Ubuntu from usb?

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Thanks for your testing! Now that you can boot your computer, it would be interesting to know if ubuntu is able to read your CDs and/or your hard drive. Can you try to read files in your hard drive partitions and in a CD that contains data and give us which worked and which didn't work?

Also if you can install ubuntu on that computer, it would also be interesting to see if ubuntu boots correctly once it is installed on your hard drive.

Finally, it would be very useful if you can follow the instructions of my last comment to provide the debug .log files. Note that dmesg .log file will only be useful if you create it right after the bug occurred (within busybox prompt). Other log files can be generated from the LiveUSB session without any problem.

About gnome-panel, it is bug #153739. You can still move the window by holding a mouse click anywhere on the window while pressing "Alt" key. You can also temporary disable compiz in the System / Preferences / Apparence menu, in the visual effect tab.

[tikky (piotr-fuz)]

Yes, I can confirm that from LiveUSB I can access old the data from my harddisk. I did not try the CD but I will. Also I remember about other test mentioned above.

[tikky (piotr-fuz)]

Hello, I've tried to make your tests from live-cd however I can't. I am getting an error whe typing:
mkdir /mnt/USB
Ther error is: No such file or directory (but my USB FAT32 pendrive it was connected)

PS. I know that I can save files on my pendrive but whats about additional software.
For example I am running liveusb, installing software called Scribus and after restart I need to install it once again. Is there any possibilities to include (or add) software to liveusb ubuntu? I;ve read that should be possible to start livecd in persistent mode.

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

Can you try mkdir -p /mnt/USB then?

Yes, persistent mode exist, if you want more information, don't hesitate to email me directly.

[Allan Crossman (b-launchpad-allancrossman-com)]

I have a similar problem on a Dell Inspiron 530 (Core 2 Duo processor, 1 CD/DVD drive, 500 GB HD, 4 MB RAM). I got a slightly more involved error message though, which I have attached.

I also had problems booting 8.04 on that machine, though adding the parameter "all_generic_ide" seemed to solve that problem. However, that did not work with the 8.10 beta.

[quixote (commer-greenglim)]

8.10 LiveCD as released on Oct 30th would not load on my Sharp MP30 laptop. It also quit the boot process with an initramfs prompt.

(Apologies if this is not the right place to file this. It's the only related-seeming issue I found.)

I have ATI Radeon 7500 graphics, so I always (since Feisty when I started with Ubuntu) run in safe graphics mode. I also use "noapic nolapic" as options to the boot process on the advice of a knowledgeable person. Ubuntu never boots properly without those options on my system, but the failure happens when X starts, as might be expected.

This is the first time a LiveCD has failed to load like this.

(I'm an UNknowledgeable user, so if you'd like me to run any tests, please give me the commands I'll need.)

The MP30 has a 1GHz Transmeta Crusoe CPU, 1GB RAM. I'm currently running Hardy.

[tikky (piotr-fuz)]

Hello, I've downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 (final release) and I managed to start my Dell from live-cd.
So problem seems to be resolved in final release.

By the way, if anybody now what was the problem?

[Saivann Carignan (oxmosys)]

tikky : Thank you very much for keeping your bug report up to date. Since you can't reproduce the issue anymore, Ì set status to Invalid, however if you can reproduce it again in the future, please set back the status to "New". I really don't know where was the issue and have no clue since I never saw this issue on any Dell vostro 200 yet..